This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

Chief announces boost to police presence all summer

Chief Bill Blair plans to use compulsory overtime to increase officers on the ground for Carnival and beyond. “What’s happened requires this response,” he said.

Police Chief Bill Blair says Toronto will add “as many as 329 officers on any given day” on patrols from Aug. 6 to Sept. 9. (VINCE TALOTTA / TORONTO STAR) | Order this photo

By Jayme PoissonStaff Reporter

Thu., July 26, 2012

Hundreds more uniformed police officers will be at Toronto’s Caribbean carnival early next month and are preparing to patrol high-crime areas across the city until the beginning of the school year, police Chief Bill Blair announced Thursday.

“Our intent is not to overpolice our communities, our intent is to overprotect,” said Blair of the unprecedented decision to use mandatory overtime to put more “boots on the ground.”

Shifts will be lengthened from eight or 10 hours to 12 hours. By extending day and night shifts to cover a full 24 hours, officers working a third afternoon shift will be freed up to be deployed across the city.

Police will add 456 more officers in the downtown core during the upcoming Scotiabank Caribbean Carnival and a further 350 uniformed officers just for the Aug. 4 parade.

Then, from Aug. 6 to Sept. 9, the longer shifts will add up to 329 officers on any given day on patrols, said Blair, who estimated the cost of the new initiative at $2 million.

Article Continued Below

The chief said he would stretch his own budget rather than ask for more funds from the city or province.

“Yes, this is unprecedented. What’s happened requires this response,” said Blair, referring to a spate of deadly shootings across the city this summer, including a mass shooting at a neighbourhood barbecue in Scarborough last week that left two innocent people dead and 23 with bullet wounds.

“This will be real officers working in the most victimized areas,” said Deputy Police Chief Peter Sloly, emphasizing officers can be deployed quickly to wherever they’re needed, regardless of the borders of their division.

Blair defined focused areas as “where violence takes place.”

The officers will be patrolling neighbourhoods on foot and bike and engaging with the community, but also using intelligence-based policing to unearth criminal elements, explained Sloly.

Officers will also be ramping up their efforts on social media and will target transit routes, highways and subways, looking for criminal activity.

Thursday’s announcement comes days after Premier Dalton McGuinty rejected Mayor Rob Ford’s request for an immediate funding boost for Toronto policing. Instead, the premier promised current funding would not be slashed in the future and pledged that $12.5 million per year to city and provincial police programs targeting gangs and guns would continue on a newly permanent basis.

Blair also stressed that police would be at public events in greater numbers for the remainder of the summer. Scotiabank Caribbean Carnival spokesman Stephen Weir said he’s supportive of an increased police presence at the upcoming festival, formerly known as Caribana.

“We are limited in terms of our funding . . . so if the police are giving us more assistance, we want it. It’s great,” he said.

The news came one day after festival organizers announced people would be searched when entering the grandstand area on the day of the annual parade.

When asked how his members feel about mandatory overtime, police association president Mike McCormack said, “I’m not going to say that our officers are thrilled about giving up weekends in the summer and giving up family time and personal time, but we have to do what we need to do.”

He added, however, that he believes Thursday’s announcement amounts to a temporary solution.

“A long-term sustainable solution requires resources and police on a long-term basis,” he said. “The thing that I find sort of ironic here is that the conversation for the last two years has been downsizing police services and police resources.”

The force currently has 175 officers fewer than its capacity, noted McCormack.

Blair said that because money from his 2012 budget will need to be reallocated for the new summer safety initiative, “there may be some other things we’re not able to do.” He did not specify what those other things could be.

Speaking to reporters Thursday, Blair and senior police officers pressed the message that policing and keeping neighbourhoods safe is a joint effort.

“If you know of a young person with a gun, you have to let us know,” Blair said.

Police also heralded the importance of building relationships with community members and supporting programs that work with young people.

Shadya Yasin, of the York Youth Coalition, raised concerns that increased police presence in focused communities could lead to the stopping, questioning and “carding” of non-criminals. “That’s a traumatic experience to any young person,” she said.

Sharon Shelton, executive director of Tropicana Community Services and one of a few community leaders in attendance Thursday, asked police to remember that the majority of the people who live in the focus communities are “good, productive citizens of Toronto.”

“We expect that officers will conduct themselves in a manner that is respectful of the community members,” she said, adding. “We ask the community to utilize this opportunity to empower yourselves by taking the lead and forming partnerships with the officers that will be visible in your community.”

More from the Toronto Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com